Arms Reviews

Arms is ranked in the 75th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Alex Donaldson
Top Critic
Unscored
Jun 7, 2017

Nintendo made a fighting game with a slickness that only Nintendo can manage.

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Unscored
Jun 7, 2017

Don't let the saccharine looks fool you: Arms is deep, challenging, and an essential purchase for the Nintendo Switch.

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8 / 10
Jun 7, 2017

Arms does a lot of new things, but fails to offer a wide variety of options or characters. That will be improved over the time with free DLCs but as it is, Arms is just a nice new beginning with a lot of room for improval.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

4.5 / 5.0
Jun 7, 2017

Fighting titles have long been the most competitive and often hardest for new players to get into, but ARMS enters itself extremely well to the genre by feeling like nothing that has ever been played before.

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9 / 10.0
Jun 7, 2017

The fighting game that everyone can play, ARMS is Nintendo multiplayer gaming at its best.

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Jun 7, 2017

ARMS is a great addition to the Switch's growing library of unique titles. Featuring a fresh new world full of color and character, the content might be light, but if you get hooked you'll find lots to enjoy here.

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9 / 10
Jun 7, 2017

ARMS is polished, addictive, immensely rewarding and - perhaps most important of all - establishes a solid platform to create a popular and long-running series.

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5 / 10
Jun 7, 2017

Stretching your limbs across the battlefield to stop an impending throw is good fun, but there's absolute anarchy when you throw in an extra body. The mediocre mini-games, and antiquated single-player further block the punch of Arms.

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6 / 10.0
Jun 9, 2017

Arms is a really weird game. At its core it's a simple, accessible fighting game with a really strong gameplay loop and room for player growth competitively, but a pair of fundamentally flawed control schemes, a lack of decent modes and a glacially slow random unlock system for items that fundamentally change how characters can function make it a really tough package to recommend.

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7 / 10.0
Jun 7, 2017

Nintendo's new all-ages fighter won't sell millions of Switches, but it does provide another novel experience for the system's early adopters

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8 / 10.0
Jun 7, 2017

As one of Nintendo's first truly new IP for the Nintendo Switch, ARMS‘s first impression might lend itself towards being no more substantial than the games we saw in Wii Sports: fun for short bursts of play, but lacking in substance. Instead, the game manages to make that simplicity its greatest strength with surprising levels of depth on top of it. More often than not, ARMS pulls no punches in being one of the standout titles in the Switch's early lineup of games for the summer.

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Unscored
Jun 9, 2017

I'm nowhere near ready to take on the game's hardest difficulty levels, but "Arms" is the first fighting game to pique my interest since "Super Smash Bros" in 2014.

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Jun 7, 2017

'Arms' brings back the fun of the Nintendo Wii, but it's most fun if you don't take it too seriously.

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70 / 100
Jun 7, 2017

ARMS is a shallow yet approachable experience that could have used just a bit more depth, detail, and personality.

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Jun 16, 2017

Lack of story and some dodgy characters don't spoil this physical Switch game's immensely playable core

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Jun 16, 2017

How long the appeal lasts might depend on how successfully Nintendo expands the rather slight fighter roster, but right now Arms is a very welcome addition to the Switch lineup.

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Jun 7, 2017

Motion controls are a bit lacking, but ARMS is still immensely fun even with standard button controls. I'll definitely be mastering my technique in online matches long after I've beaten Grand Prix with every character. It may not be for everyone, but this is absolutely the Splatoon of fighters. I can't wait to fight you all online.

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M3
Top Critic
7 / 10
Jun 7, 2017

The mechanics in Arms isn't perfect, as the motion controller can be tricky to get used to. Aside for that, this is a surprisingly deep fighting game that reminds us of Punch-Out. Fun, colorful and with a great online-mode.

Review in Swedish | Read full review

Ken McKown
Top Critic
7 / 10.0
Jun 22, 2017

ARMS is a truly unique experience that digs into my nostalgia with games like Punch Out! I just hope the free DLC will make it feel more fleshed out. Quality cannot be argued here, but content definitely feels far too light at launch.

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Dave Aubrey
Top Critic
8 / 10.0
Jun 15, 2017

ARMS isn't the best fighting game, but it's a damn good one, and one of the most instantly enjoyable and accessible I've ever played. Probably not EVO material, but will be hours of fun with friends.

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